This was a really cute gift that someone gave a girlfriend of mine that I had to recreate it and give it to my soon-to-be Sister-in-law. The pieces can be relatively inexpensive to buy.

Candles: Search the clearance area or sale sections at Target and Michael's and the Dollar Tree has the staple white, off-white and red but there could be more colors. Hobby Lobby also sells candles in every color and vary from $.99-$1.29 depending on the height.

Container to put the candles in: I found a box at Michael's for $7.99 but had a 40% off coupon.

Filler: Purchased at the Dollar Tree

Candle Holders: $1.29 each

Letters to decorate box: $3.99 each but I purchased them with another 40% coupon and you could also find other ways to decorate the box using inexpensive items (Target's Bullseye's Playground has a lot of fun things!).

Tulle: This was probably the priciest item. At $7.99 for the roll, I only used a few feet of it and ended up giving it to the bride so she could incorporate it into the wedding decorations.

They loved the gift and are going to repurpose the box for receiving gift cards at the wedding!

Here is the candle poem in a 5x7 size. You could absolutely put it into a fun frame and add it into the package which they could also re-purpose.

Happy Monday! I thought I'd switch things up a bit and start a new series called "Make It Mondays" where I show you my DIY projects.

This week, I'm showing you a super easy project that you can do with Ikea picture frames and some brass corners (and little teeny nails). I got the idea when I read through a DIY frame idea by Courtney at A Thoughtful Place. She used painters tape to create her corners and they turned out fabulous!

Here is her finished product (link to her blog post can be found here):

After seeing this, I thought about it more and wondered if they sold brass corners. Through some digging around via Google, I found some really cute brass corners! When they came in the mail though, they had no nails to go with them. I had to scour the internet once again and after visiting a few hardware stores that didn't sell that small of a nail, I found them online.

The frames I used were RIBBA but I just checked the IKEA website and they don't carry the size I have which I believe is an 11x14 and they also don't carry the color black...

 First, I glued the corners to the picture frames to keep them steady when I was going to add the nails in. I used a rock hammer to nail in the nails because a full sized hammer was way too big.


The nails were really delicate so if I hit it too hard, they bent.

 Then, I'd have to pull them out with pliers. I did this quite a few times. Each corner had 2 holes, 6 total. I only hammered in the first two on the front of the frame.


Pulling these little nails out was super tricky too. The frames are made of compacted wood and were somewhat tough to nail through but I did it!

I've been meaning to write this post for about a year now. But I didn't have the greatest motivation to blog back then. I was 7 months preggo and trying to set up for my hubby's 35th birthday party. So here I am... writing a year late. :)
I just LOVE throwing parties. I really like planning the menu, creating the deocrations and the invitations...and everything in between.

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about making a DIY photobooth background (you can see that post  HERE) and it prompted me to write about the decor I used for his last birthday. I really wanted to do something that showed off all of his pictures of him through the years. Rather than put it on walls, I made (well, half made) a pennant with his baby pictures that my mother-in-law had given me and had it strewn throughout the living room so that people could walk around and look at each strand.

View 1 (and the birthday boy).

View 2

Here is what you need:
4 strands of plastic pennant (100 Foot Multicolor Pennant Banner)
photos cut in the shape of a pennant (you can find several on Pinterest here) 

I simply attached the images (there are pictures on the front and back sides) and attached them with a clothes pin so that it weighed down the banner (and so that I could do something different with the banner when I wanted to).  And that was it!

Hope you guys try this out! This is a great way to show off some super cute/silly pictures. Everyone got a kick out of them at the party!

Last year, my husband turned the big 35 and I wanted to do some fun decor for his milestone birthday. I ended up creating a really cool pennant with photos of him growing up and streaming it in the living room. But that is another post coming soon...

This year, our friend Noah (who's birthday is a few days before the hubby's) and Jamie wanted to hold a joint birthday party. I volunteered to create a photo booth area to try to up my game from last year. At first, I thought about ordering cut outs of the guys but when I had gone online to price things out, most websites wanted to charge $200! S.A.D.F.A.C.E.

So my second thought was to create a photobooth background. Who doesn't love a photobooth at their party! We had one at our wedding and it was a fabulously (and fairly tips-ied) good time! We have the copies of all the pictures as proof! I know that trying to print a color poster anywhere bigger than an standard sized poster (11x17) would be a ridiculous amount of money. So I thought it would be best if I tried to print out the background on our color printer and put them together like a jigsaw puzzle. After doing a test run with a smaller sized poster, I found that the quality isn't what I was looking for.

Enter Kinkos.


I went into Kinkos thinking that there was nothing they could do. After going through my options, most being $200+ (fancy vinyl poster, colored paper poster, etc), I was about ready to just plop down the $200+ dollars and call it a day. But then I had told the clerk my idea about printing it on my own printer and he said that they could print it out and it the quality would be better than a home printer. So, I gave him the giant file and he printed it. All 48 sheets. BOOYAH! Kinkos is awesome. They've helped me on more than one occasion with big print jobs but this one took the cake.
Total spent at Kinko's (with tax): $31.24

Here is what the image looked like when I took it home from Kinko's. There are 8 pages across, 6 pages down = 48 pages total. As you can also see, there is a white border around each of the pages so I had to cut each border off individually. I believe Kinko's can cut them off for you but I didn't ask at that time. Maibad.


Then, with the advice from Noah's wife, Jamie, I headed to the dollar store to buy foam board so that I could take the 48 sheets of paper and attach them to boards so that it would be easier to assemble before the party. I bought 12 sheets of foam board total. I was thinking I'd only have to use 9 but bought 3 more just in case.
Total at the Dollar Store: $12  (and some photobooth props: $8) = $20


I thought it was going to be simple after that. That I could paste 6-9 pages onto each board and then fasten them together. Boy was I WRONG. The foam boards are 20x30 and the sheets were less than a full sized sheet of paper. So each foam board had small pieces and large pieces and I had to be careful about placing them or the entire picture could be thrown off. And when you have people in the image, you want to make sure no one is missing an eye and to make sure their nose is in the right spot. I used rubber cement to attach the paper to the boards. I found it was easy to pick the paper up off the board and replace it if I used it sparingly in the corners at first. Then, when I got all the pieces down, I covered the back in glue.
1 bottle of rubber cement glue was $2.99 at Joann's.

That's me...placing each cut piece onto the foam board. :)

Voila! Yeah, I know... The strip club photobooth background was pretty funny though! The guy at Kinko's sure had a laugh.

The poster stood 7 feet across and 4 feet high. The foam boards were attached with packing tape on the backside and stapled into a 2x4 so that was it elevated. Here is the background in an un-cropped photo. The background was set in the garage and you can see that its set up high so that the bottom doesn't show.

The birthday boys!

And here it is, the final finished product!

Yes, I do this in a lot of photos I take :)

Jamie and our friend Chelsea. :) I bought fairy wings, funny glasses and all sorts of other stuff as props for the photobooth.

Total at the Dollar Store: $12  (and some photobooth props: $8) = $20
Total spent at Joann's for glue: $2.99
Total spent at Kinko's (with tax): $31.24 
 ______________________________________________________________
TOTAL: $54.33 (give or take a few dollars for tax)
 TOTAL TIME SPENT (cutting, pasting, etc): 4-5 hours done over the course of two days. 

Items needed:
7ft x 4ft backdrop = 48 tiled sheets of printed paper from Kinkos.
9 foamboards from the Dollar Store.
1 bottle of rubber cement.
Any type of heavy tape to attach the foam boards together.

Some way to hang the finished product (possible methods):
a) Staple the top of the board to a 2x4 and clamp the sides down.
b) Hang the finished image from a light stand with clamps.

Hope you enjoyed my DIY! I'd love to hear how you made your own photobooth background as well!



 

A year or so ago, I had finished an Ikea hack with my coffee table (post can be seen here). Recently, I had run into this amazing marble adhesive paper and I thought it would love FABULOUS if I combined the two...
Gold and Marble? YESSSSSSSS.
Have you ever seen a little kid who can't handle their happiness when they are super happy? Well, that was me when I got this fabulous item in the mail.

You can find the marble adhesive paper here
DC Fix 346-0306 Adhesive Film, Grey Marble

They have a couple of different colors and styles of this paper. I chose the traditional white/gray color. As I was in the store yesterday, I also found it in the area that has shelf liner (kitchen stuff). The adhesive cost me $10 on Amazon but at Rite Aid, it was about $6. I also assume Home Depot has the same stuff there too...

The table comes with a dark wood leaf and two glass panels (one for the smaller table and one for the top panel of the long table). Sorry for the flash-y picture. I have to take pictures at night at times since my little one keeps me busy during the day.

This roll of marble paper is FABULOUS! Up close, its slightly pixelated but who is really going to look at it that closely...besides, if you throw an Instagram filter on it, no one will know the difference! ;)

I wiped the top down and then applied it according to the directions. It doesn't require any additional adhesive and according to the directions, if you start to see air bubbles, you can just pull it up and reapply. The roll comes with about two applications (for the Ikea Vittsjo table) if you wanted to just do it over again.

I wanted to cover the back side of the top (its black) so I could retain the dark wood look should I decide to shoot something on it but I accidentally covered to dark wood and I'm too lazy to try to recover it. I'll try it soon though. Promise!


Here is what the uncovered side looks like...
I've since moved the marble to the top so that I can access it easier instead of having to remove everything on it to take 1 picture. I am IN LOVE with this! We don't have marble counter-tops (yet) but this is a super easy fix in the meantime. I absolutely love looking at everyone's Instagram shots that are prettily styled on marble!

If you have this table and have painted it gold, has anyone had issues with their gold paint coming off? I've got nicks and scratches everywhere and I don't think I bump into it that much...

You can find the marble adhesive paper here
DC Fix 346-0306 Adhesive Film, Grey Marble

This project has been added to MadefromPinterest's Link Party. Check it out here!

1. Currently adding to an Ikea Hack I'd completed. Loving this marble..... or is it marble?

2. Reminiscing about the Stitch Fix event. Debating on taking the plunge and doing a subscription service. What subscription services do you recommend?

3. Visited with a girlfriend. It was SO NICE to have adult interaction. Most of the time, I speak baby.

4. I made a big ass cookie for the hubs and I. I think it's micro baking has become my Friday night ritual.

5. Doing a closet cleanout and debating on starting an Instagram handle to sell it all.

6. Played the Powerball lottery and lost. Maybe if I keep playing, someday I'll win? Momma wants A LOT of shoes. You know what they say, "you can't win, if you don't play..."

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Since I've started this crafting/thrifting streak, I have become addicted to spray painting anything I can get my hands on. My favorite color to paint, you ask? Why GOLD! Alas, this post isn't about gold spray paint.

With Lily's big baby shower on the way, I've been trying to get everything together, a little bit per day, to make this a big shindig. My theme has to do with horses because A) In the Chinese horoscope, it is the year of the horse (and I was also born under this sign), and B) you'll have to wait till after the shower to see the theme because I think its pretty EX.CIT.ING!

I've been on the hunt for anything horse-ish and have been dying to get out my trusty spray paint trigger and getting started. The weather was FABULOUS this weekend so I set out to paint this adorable carousel horse I found at a thrift store a few weeks ago. For $6, you can't beat it!

I love that the white gave the horse a modern, classic look and kept the pole its original gold. I'm going to use this and a few other DIY projects I have going on as decorations for the shower. Once that is done, I can use it in her nursery!

Oh, and that GORGEOUS tassel bracelet was made by Lakeitha Duncan of Wrist Soiree. She makes her bracelets to size and has some beautiful and reasonably priced pieces. Check her out!

I've been dying to use my sewing machine and silhouette cameo cutter for a while now. A few years ago, Chris bought me a sewing machine and I took a class on how to sew with a pattern and hadn't used it since! I could barely sew in a straight line much less try to follow a pattern. So, when I came across a youtube video on how to make a pillow, I thought this would be a perfect simple project to get back into the swing of things.

I have a stockpile of striped fabric from Ikea which is great for upholstery projects. I also found some iron-on vinyl online and used the my cutter to cut out the letters. Since it had been a little while since I'd sewed, it took a bit to get used to the feel of the machine again and re-learning how to thread the machine. I was also super paranoid about not sewing in a straight line but it turned out well! The vinyl was a little more frustrating of a task. The first piece of vinyl didn't cut so well on the vinyl setting so I had to adjust to a blade of 6. And even then, I had to scrape some of the curves because there were stubborn areas that wouldn't come off! I was really paranoid about melting the plastic to the pillow. In the directions, the vinyl is supposed to take on the texture of the fabric you're attaching it to and mine is still shiny BUT its definitely on there! I think I even melted the top of the second L slightly after following the 25 second rule.

And here is my finished product! Aaaaand... our baby name reveal! Can't wait to meet Baby Lily soon!

I was really pleased with the way it turned out and now have the itch to sew more pillows! Maybe someday, I'll work up the nerve to do clothes again!



Here are some of the resources I used to make this pillow:

Hello hello hello! I've been a super busy bee lately. My hubby just had his 35th birthday and we celebrated with some of his closest friends and family. With all the extra weight I'm carrying, I had to make sure I was doing a little each day of the week and to not tire myself out. The party turned out great but unfortunately, I didn't take a whole lot of pictures. :( In fact, I only took 1 during the party! BUT I did want to share a fun DIY with you...

Since it was his 35th, I wanted to do a fun bunting project. I asked my super adorable mother-in-law to see if she could find some pictures of him as a kid. Then, I scanned them and cut them into triangles with the help of clipping masks in Photoshop CS6.



I was going to make the bunting with cardstock but with about 37 pictures, it was going to be costly (cardstock can be pricey!). So while searching for candlesticks for a different project, I came across some colorful bunting at $1 each! I picked up 3 and we pinned them across the living room and I took clothespins and added them to the bunting.




All in all, we thought they came out great and everyone that came into the room got a little laugh of "Little Chris in the 80's".

This was my favorite picture... I think everyone has the gratuitous baby-in-sink image!

I haven't wandered around Target or HomeGoods much lately so when I found that I needed things from both stores, I happily jumped in the car and headed out that way.

Target had a variety of adorable nightstands to fit anyone's fancy!



I really liked this python fabric covered end table. We are currently trying to decide on how to decorate the master bedroom and I loved the cut, the color (its a gray/off white color)  and the adorable hardware on it.


I am looking for end tables for our office area and came across these lovelies as well.



After I galavanted around Target, I headed to HomeGoods. We received a Keurig Coffee Maker as a wedding gift and ever since we received it, I have not set foot in a coffee shop since...well, ok, maybe on special occasions or trips. With the individual coffees, milk and vanilla syrup (I drink vanilla lattes religiously), we clocked each cup at $1.45! HomeGoods sells the Green Mountain Iced Coffee in French Vanilla for $8.99 per box (of 16) so I purchased two!

While walking around, I noticed the horse trend. There were horses EVERYWHERE!





Have you noticed any trends in your furniture decorating adventures?